1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a Chinese pinyin input method and apparatus that utilize the nine numerical keys of a numerical keypad of a telephone set or a remote controller of a television set to enable the user to input Chinese characters.
2. Description of the Related Art
In present life, applications of electronic information have become more and more broader. The need to utilize keyboards on non-computer devices to input Chinese characters, such as keypads on electronic calculators, mobile phones, and TV remote controllers, has become more and more intense. If such devices are to be provided with certain functions, such as phone directory, memorandum, E-mail transmission and reception, short message display, and the like, these devices must possess a facility for inputting characters. With the feature of inputting Chinese characters, such devices can not only increase their added value but also broaden the field of their applications.
Presently, people in Mainland China and westerners use the Romanization pinyin method as a standard for pronouncing Chinese characters. As such, the pinyin method is practical for use as a Chinese character input method.
Currently, some devices, such as telephone sets or numerical keypads, provided with a Chinese character input function have been proposed, e.g., the xe2x80x9ctelephone keypadxe2x80x9d of R.O.C. Patent Publication No. 287340. The object of this patent is, in order to enhance memorization of a phone number, the numerical keys of a telephone set correspond with characters of a language or phonetic symbols, and these characters are used to represent the phone number. In case of applying to Chinese, the 37 Chinese phonetic symbols are transformed into 37 sets of Chinese Pinyin units. Among them, 24 sets are chosen for assignment to the numerical keys xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c9xe2x80x9d of the telephone set.
Although the invention can be applied to the input of Chinese characters via the pinyin method, because the keypad arrangement is made according to the arrangement of the Chinese phonetic symbols, which is not harmonized with the positions of the English letters on the keypad of the telephone set, using the pinyin method to input Chinese characters would complicate the keypad and make it difficult to learn. Besides, since all 37 sets of pinyin units are not included, the goal of completely inputting all Chinese characters cannot be achieved. If the remaining 13 sets are to be arranged into the keys, the keypad would become more complicated to operate, and would require too many input keystrokes.
Besides, there are several prototype products in the industry, which utilize direct methods for inputting pinyin units. Particularly, the original arrangement of the English letters on the numerical keypad of the general telephone set, and the number of keystrokes of a particular key are utilized for directly inputting pinyin units, as shown in FIG. 8. For example, when xe2x80x9cjxe2x80x9d is to be inputted, key xe2x80x9c5xe2x80x9d is pressed once and, when xe2x80x9ckxe2x80x9d is to be inputted, key xe2x80x9c5xe2x80x9d is pressed twice. While such a technique is easy to learn, it requires too many keystrokes for input. For example, when the Chinese character xe2x80x9c(xe2x80x9czhongxe2x80x9d)xe2x80x9d is to be inputted, up to a total of 13 keystrokes (key xe2x80x9c9xe2x80x9d, 4 times; key xe2x80x9c4xe2x80x9d, 2 times; key xe2x80x9c6xe2x80x9d, 3 times; key xe2x80x9c6xe2x80x9d, 2 times; key xe2x80x9c4xe2x80x9d, 1 time; and conversion key, 1 time) is required for input. There are 409 valid pinyin combinations (excluding the Chinese phonetic tones) in the Chinese language, each of which requires 7.76 keystrokes on an average.
The input method of R.O.C. Patent Publication No. 73890, for example, is related to the use of Romanization pinyin for inputting Chinese characters via numerical keys. The key arrangement is shown in FIG. 9. In this method, each Chinese Phonetic symbol corresponds to a set of pinyin symbols. These pinyin symbols are then arranged into the numerical keys xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c8,xe2x80x9dand are subsequently coded according to the key arrangement. For example, the code for xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d is 12 (the second symbol for key xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d), for xe2x80x9cshxe2x80x9d is 53 (the third symbol for key xe2x80x9c5xe2x80x9d), and for xe2x80x9coxe2x80x9d is 74 (the fourth symbol for key xe2x80x9c7xe2x80x9d). The second, third, fourth and light Chinese phonetic tones are represented respectively by the numerical keys xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c3xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c4xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c5xe2x80x9d. During input, the key input codes and the Chinese phonetic tone keys form a Chinese phonetic sound combination.
For example, the combinations xe2x80x9cmien2xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cguo2xe2x80x9d represents the Chinese characters xe2x80x9cxe2x80x9dxe2x80x9cxe2x80x9d, which are coded as:
mien2: 1411722
guo2: 3355742
In this input method, two keys are required to be pressed for each set of the pinyin symbols that corresponds to a Chinese phonetic symbol, and an additional Chinese phonetic tone key to complete a pinyin symbol combination that is subsequently transformed into a Chinese character.
Although this method requires a fewer number of keystrokes than the input method shown in FIG. 8, the average number of keystrokes needed for inputting each combination is 5.7 keys, which is still too many. While this method processes pinyin combinations having the Chinese phonetic tones, it can also be suitably used for pinyin combinations having no Chinese phonetic tones by simply replacing all of the Chinese phonetic tone keys with a single conversion key. The average number of the keystrokes needed for inputting each pinyin combination for pinyin processing without the Chinese phonetic tones is 4.7. This method has a disadvantage in that the way Chinese phonetics correspond to pinyin gives the user a feeling of confusion and inability to respond directly.
Moreover, the two keys required for inputting each pinyin symbol are normally two different keys, and not the same key pressed twice, thereby slowing down the input speed. Furthermore, the keystroke arrangement of the pinyin symbols is confusing, and the user is unable to directly understand the keystroke codes, thus further increasing the learning difficulty.
The methods of the prior art described above have the following disadvantages:
1. The coded arrangement of the keystrokes for the pinyin symbols is different from the arrangement of the English letters on the numerical keypad of the general telephone set, thereby resulting in confusion and difficulty in memorizing as well as in learning, and making it inconvenient to use.
2. The average number of input keystrokes is too many, which also prolongs the input data time.
The present invention is intended to provide an easy and convenient Chinese input method and apparatus that uses the numerical keypad provided on devices, such as a telephone set or a remote controller of a television set, with a limited number of keys.
In order to substantially eliminate the disadvantages described above, a Chinese pinyin input method according to this invention uses a numerical keypad and is implemented by a device, which has a numerical keypad, a memory portion and a display portion, for inputting Chinese characters. The method comprises the following steps:
Step 1: arranging pinyin symbols according to the arrangement of the English letters on the numerical keypad of a general telephone set, assigning one of the keys, excluding the keys xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c9xe2x80x9d, as a conversion key, and constructing a key and pinyin symbol combination look-up portion in the memory portion for storing keypad key signal combinations and corresponding pinyin symbol combinations in accordance with the keypad arrangement;
Step 2: constructing a dictionary in the memory portion for storing the Pinyin symbol combinations and corresponding Chinese characters or words;
Step 3: based on the aforesaid look-up rules for keys and pinyin symbols, inputting a key signal by pressing a key probably followed by additional conversion selection keys from the numerical keypad according to the desired pinyin symbol;
Step 4: according to the key signal inputted by the user, combining the inputted key signal with previous inputted keystroke signals yet to be converted into a Chinese character, and retrieving the corresponding pinyin symbol combination from the key and pinyin symbol combination look-up portion;
Step 5: analyzing the corresponding pinyin symbol combination, repeating Step 3 if there exists a plurality of combinations for continued input by the user, otherwise, comparing the pinyin symbol combination together with a string of pinyin symbols inputted beforehand with the dictionary to retrieve the corresponding Chinese character or word, and transmitting the corresponding Chinese character or word to the display portion for output display; and
Step 6: unless terminated by the user, repeating Step 3 to continue with input of a next Chinese character.
Moreover, according to this invention, a Chinese Pinyin input apparatus for inputting Chinese characters uses numerical keypad having a numerical keypad, a memory portion, and a display portion. The apparatus comprises.
a key and pinyin symbol combination look-up portion constructed in the memory portion for storing keypad key signal combinations and corresponding pinyin symbol combinations in accordance with a keypad arrangement in which the pinyin symbols are arranged according to the arrangement of the English letters on the numerical keypad of a general telephone set, and in which one of the keys, excluding the keys xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9c9xe2x80x9d, is assigned as a conversion key;
a dictionary for storing the pinyin symbol combinations and corresponding Chinese characters or words;
a Chinese word converting portion for converting pinyin symbols into the corresponding Chinese character of word by using valid pinyin symbol combinations as indexing keys for comparison with the dictionary; and
a system control portion for controlling and analyzing the inputted key signals, for executing the conversion of the key signal combinations to the pinyin symbol combinations, the conversion of the pinyin symbol combinations to the Chinese characters or word, and for managing the output of data.
This invention is based on the arrangement of the English letters on the numerical keypad of a general telephone set to setup pinyin symbol keys. Thus, the use can easily adapt to the keypad input method without further practice. Also, this invention only requires one operation for a key when inputting each pinyin symbol, thereby decreasing the number of input keystrokes. For example, if the user wishes to input any one of xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cc,xe2x80x9d the user only needs to press the key xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d once. Thereafter, the operation for inputting the next pinyin symbol can proceed. After the input of all of the pinyin symbols has been completed, the pinyin symbol combination inputted by the user is identified based on data in a key and pinyin symbol combination look-up portion. By utilizing such a key input method, together with key and pinyin symbol identification techniques, it is possible to lower the average input keystroke number to 4.1 for each of the 409 valid pinyin symbol combinations. This result is close to the average keystroke number for inputting Chinese characters using a computer keyboard.
With the aforesaid pinyin input method that does not require learning, together with the function of converting pinyin symbols to Chinese characters or word, it is possible for the user to achieve the goal of fast and convenient input of Chinese characters using a numerical keypad.